mildredtail 's review for:

The Spice Gate by Prashanth Srivatsa

3.75

adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I loved the world concept. The world being set up around the spice trade was such a wonderful idea. Discussing castes in a fantasy world also feels like a good way for people to empathize with people and understand caste systems better. The food descriptions were rude though - made it hard to skip out on eating to keep reading with all the amazing foods described. 
The only real con I have with the book is I think it needed to be split up more - maybe a trilogy - because it felt so dense since there was so much to the plot and world building. (But also, is that really a con if I wanted more time in the world?). 

I also didn’t really feel the emotions in Harini and Amir’s relationship since it wasn’t really the main focus of the novel. I think I would’ve liked either that expanded more or Amir and Kalay to end up becoming involved since I was able to see their friendship blossom more. I loved the blossoming friendship we got to see